Negative Sentiment Set To Extend Losses On Wall Street

New York, NY (AHN) - Stocks on Wall Street are likely to extend losses on Thursday as dropping commodities lowered earnings outlook of resources companies and other sectors. The U.S. stock index futures turn red.

The decline may continue after overall negative sentiment on Wall Street pulled down the blue-chip Dow average by 6.1 percent to below 8,000 points, which is lowest level since 2003.

At 7:10 a.m. EDT in New York, S&P futures were trading lower by 8.40 points or 1.03 percent or 804.10 points, NASDAQ futures was moving down by 6.25 points or 0.57 percent at 1,086.25 points.

While Dow was trading lower at 38.00 points or 0.47 percent or 7,989.00 points at the same time in New York.

Oil futures continued its downward movement and but remained above $50-a-barrel mark on Thursday, traded to the lowest level in the last 22 months.

Recently, a light, sweet barrel for December delivery was trading lower by 3.1 percent to $52.39 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude for December delivery expires as the front-month contract later on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the contract had plunged by as much as 77 cents to $52.85 a barrel, which is the lowest level since January 2007, in overnight trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

According to an Energy Department report released yesterday, fuel usage during the last four weeks in the United States averaged 19.1 million barrels a day, which is down by as much as 7 percent from a year earlier in the same period.

Shares of Chevron Corp., the second-biggest U.S. oil company, dropped by 1.1 percent or 79 cents per share, to $69.82 in Frankurt trading on early Thursday.

The Labor Department is expected to release report on initial unemployment benefit filings for last week at 8:30 a.m. ET in Washington.

The Conference Board is scheduled to release information on the leading economic indicators for October at 10 a.m. ET. A report on the Philadelphia Fed's regional manufacturing activity will also be released at the same time.

In currency trading, the yen strengthened and changed hands at 95.27 yen against U.S. dollar in Asia on Thursday, after it closed at 95.85 yen late Wednesday in New York.